Inhabitants of the underworld

Surrounded by 70 minefields stretching across roughly 5000 square kilometers of land in the South Australian outback, Coober Pedy – the “opal capital of the world” – is pitted with deep holes in the dusty ground beside piles of excavated sand and gravel atop deep mine shafts. Some 1800 people live here too, many of them underground to escape the extreme heat. Private living quarters as well as hotels, restaurants, shops and churches have been built in the so-called dugouts, which have become a tourist attraction, too.

Getting there

In December, Lufthansa flies daily from Frankfurt (FRA) and five times weekly from Munich (MUC) to Singapore (SIN), from where Star Alliance member Singapore Airlines flies to Adelaide (ADL) and a regional airline continues on to Coober Pedy.